File Name Encoding Repair Utility v1.0

The Mac OS 9 Finder uses Apple-specific Mac OS character sets (such as MacRoman or MacJapanese) to enter and display file names.
The Mac OS X Finder uses a worldwide standard character encoding, named Unicode, to enter and display file names.
Mac OS 9 converts file names to Unicode for storage on Mac OS Extended volumes, but when the encoding differs from the system default (for example, a Japanese file name on an English system or vice versa) the conversion to Unicode can be incorrect. As a result, the file name may not display as expected. The Mac OS X File Name Encoding Repair utility will correct many of the common cases of incorrect conversion.

How to use the utility
Download and install the utility on your system. To use it, drag and drop a file or folder on the utility’s icon.
The utility will ask you what the correct encoding for the file should have been. Choose the correct encoding from the popup menu; this will be the encoding that matches the language of the file name. For encodings which are used for more than one language, you can pause the mouse in the menu and a small tip window will appear telling you which languages are supported by that encoding. If the file name still looks incorrect, you can use the utility again and try a different encoding.

There are two options you can specify:

1. Optimize for Mac OS X (on by default). This option currently affects only Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Hebrew encodings. For Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, it controls the way certain special characters in Apple’s system fonts are handled, and handles file names that contain MacRoman characters mixed in. For Arabic and Hebrew, it controls the way explicit text direction is handled.

2. For folders, also fix contents (off by default). If this option is off, only the name of a folder will be repaired when it is dropped on the utility. If this option is on, names of files and folders within that folder (and subfolders of those folders) will be repaired as well. Incorrectly changing the names of a large number of files is difficult to undo, so be careful if you enable this option. You may want to make a backup copy of the folder or folders in question beforehand.

After selecting the encoding and options, click Repair. The utility will attempt to convert the file names of the files and folders dropped on it to the encoding you chose. If a name cannot be converted, or if the utility cannot determine what the original data from Mac OS 9 was supposed to be, the name is left unchanged; you can repair such file names manually by editing the name in the Finder and re-typing the correct name.

After you have clicked Repair, you can drag further files and folders to the utility’s icon in the Dock or the Finder to repair their names. Quit the utility using the utility’s menus or command-Q when you are done.